Lyman Trumbull Quotes
I take it that any statute which is not equal to all, and which deprives any citizen of civil rights, which are secured to other citizens, is an unjust encroachment upon his liberty; and it is in fact a badge of servitude which by the Constitution is prohibited
Lyman Trumbull, 1813-1896, U. S. Senator (Illinois), Quoted by Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field in his Dissent in the Slaughter-House Cases, 1873
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This was the first major civil rights speech. He had previously in his political career tread carefully in the civil rights arena. The Southerners had disproportionate control over the Congressional committee chairmanships and they could hold up his entire legislative agenda. JFK’s father was a right wing fascist who supported Hitler earlier and always advised against pushing civil rights.
This statement in the President’s Second Inaugural. Infuriated the politicians of the Southern States. Remember, at the time there was brutal discrimination throughout most of the South, and more important to the South than the fact if the discrimination was their perverse view that this was a right, proper and necessary state of affairs for the welfare of the people and was required by Christianity’s mandates as they read the Scripture. For the President to state so publicly that discrimination was contrary to the law, justice, good faith, citizenship and fairness was a major shock. Since the early days of reconstruction after the Civil war in the Grant Administration, no president had spoken so publicly and openly against the Southern status quo.
This ruling upheld a military draft for males only. The logic was that men and women were dissimilar persons.
It is surprising that these ideas would come from one of the most autocratic powerful monarch in the world at the time. However there were many very liberal influences on her from Europe. This set of proposals she even sent to Voltaire to get his feedback and criticism.
Commenting on allowing gays to serve in the military:
This quotation was a slight paraphrase from Article 14 of the Republican Party Platform which had been adopted unanimously at the Chicago Party Convention on May 17, 1860. This was the convention where Lincoln was nominated. It is not known who originally drafted Article 14, although Lincoln's agents were very active in the platform drafting process. In his later campaign speech, Lincoln ran on the Party Platform.
These elements later were used in the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Lyman Trumbull was a United States Senator from Illinois and the co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
